Madoka Magica Portable… Is A Dungeon Crawler?

In the dungeon part, you pick one of the girls or set up a party before entering. Each girl has their own characteristics and spells sourced from the anime. The game uses a turn based system where you have to pay attention to the distance between your character and the enemies. The adventure part has players pick events from a map. These can either lead to conversations or new dungeons.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable is based on the anime, but has alternate routes to see depending how you play the game. Namco Bandai hired animation studio Shaft (the same company that handles the anime) to create an original opening for the game.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Portable is slated for release on March 15, 2012. Famitsu has a handful of screenshots and a look at the limited edition. That package includes a Madoka in a uniform set, special video on a Blu-ray disc, a handkerchief, soft pouch, clear card case, and PSP game packed in a box designed by Shaft. The limited edition costs 11,990 yen ($157) while a stand alone game is 6,480 yen ($85).

I so want that LE, despite its pricetag. I got that Madoka poster at Otakon, so I’m excited. :D

http://chronotwist.deviantart.com/ JustThisOne

Why bother? ;__; You can’t win in the end. You can never win against Kyubey.

I’m really glad this isn’t a first person dungeon crawler. :) They aren’t bad, but it’s good to just… relieving? to see something different. Dungeon crawling can be so much more than just watching slash marks on shivering sprites, ze.

EDIT: Upon closer inspection, it looks like it could still be first person, but perhaps not… Hmm. I’ll keep my eye on this then, ze.

Göran Isacson

*Slaps you for that* Why bother? Dammit that’s exactly the kind of attitude that will turn you into a witch! We’re gonna live dammit, live and see this game through to the end, no matter how much despair samey dungeon-backgrounds and static sprites may bring us!

malek86

Noooo! Not the dithering!

Heh, sorry, but after playing the FF demo, I’ve come to realize that clean graphics are awesome. You’d think a game like this wouldn’t be nearly as taxing, and yet…

Anyway, that’s one cool limited edition. Also, it looks like even the normal edition is not quite standalone – it still includes the special video, albeit in DVD form.

Kibbitz

… man, this is turning out to be a horrible year. After years of being a snob about not having much to buy per year for games, this year decides to break me totally by throwing out game after game I have interest in, and mostly in Japanese too… At least this is in 2012, I still have time to try to juggle the finances.

I should probably check out the anime first before I invest in this gorgeous collector’s edition.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

The anime is really cool, though, not for the expected reasons…

Xerain

Sounds like good parts Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

The dungeon bit actually makes sense. The girls would hunt to get Grief Seeds for Kyubey or restore their powers.
…Wow, do I sound like a dork. The anime series is being published in the U.S. soon. It’s a great show, and if the game sounds good I’ll probably import it.

puchinri

I kind of wouldn’t be surprised if it actually made it over here if the anime DVDs do well or something. And they’re bound to. But it probably would be smarter to import this, regardless.

http://twitter.com/matty_125 matty

I was thinking that too since it got quite a bit of attention, but will it do banana numbers like Japan had? On top of that, there are many games based on anime series that were noteworthy that never get published unless it does Naruto numbers (though, I hear those games are pretty good, too). I mean, other than that I don’t see a strong connection of games and their anime series counterparts being represented at all anywhere.
Then again, we’re getting a Fate game soon.

Oh, and I don’t think many sites mentioned this, but God Eater Burst had a Madoka Magica DLC released. (2:28)http://youtu.be/ci0JCpc5IZY

It’s just a skin of Madoka, but I thought that was cool. Sadly, I heard from others that the N.A. publisher won’t be localizing it due to licensing issues. I should try getting it to see if it works with my game, at least…

puchinri

I don’t think it’ll do such crazy numbers, but it is apparently nearly as scary popular here as it is there. And that’s a good point, I did consider that, but I figure it’d be such a cash in that people would take to it. I think it’s also the way the audience was aimed. It’s usually shounen type games coming over (Naruto, DBZ, Bleach, etc). Madoka may be a magical girl show, but it’s aimed at men, so I think it has a good chance for that too. (Because a lot of companies assume that if the game doesn’t have babies or sparkles or fashion, girls won’t/don’t buy it. Sadly.)

That’s interesting, huh. And did they mean licensing issues as far as the series not released here now? Because that could change…?

SolidusSnake

Do want! ◕ ‿‿ ◕

Yay I pre-ordered the LE off of play-asia. Who else is going to make a contract? ◕ ‿‿ ◕

Crimson_Cloud

I’ve been neglecting Madoka anime for quite a while, even though I got thousands of great recommendations. Guess it’s time to watch it now. Limited Edition looks sweet.

Darkrise

You can get it easily. If you sign this contract. ／人◕‿‿◕人＼﻿

AzureNova

Yeah, it does look sweet. Damn Namco Bandai for making it look so good. lol

http://whatistheexcel.com/ Excel-2012

What else would it be?

I just hope it follows the anime’s rule that the entire cast cannot be seen alive together at any given moment.

Darkrise

I was actually expecting more of an action game. =/

AzureNova

You and me both Darkrise, you and me both.

http://myfigurecollection.net/collection/ashgail Ashgail

That would be great, but I don’t want to be able to use Mami only in the beginning of the game :( Her powers are too awesome.

http://www.siliconera.com Jenni

I definitely want this game. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is one of the few animes I’ve completely watched and it was amazing.

… and that Kyubey bag in the LE is pretty awesome.

Göran Isacson

On the one hand, I kind of get where they’re going with it. The witches worlds ARE kind of dungeon-y… but will a gameplay form that restrictive really be able to bring the mindfuck and heart-ache that the show did? Will they let us play as other Puellas? Will they let the story take other twists and turns? I am excited, yet cautious.

AzureNova

While as I do love Madoka, I don’t know how I feel about it being a dungeon crawler. They could’ve easily made this a nice action adventure game traversing through levels with intense boss fights against the witches leading all the way up to The Walpurgis Night.

KyoyaHibari

That might be interesting, I saw about 3/4 episodes of Madoka, and I love the visual flair with the collages and unique art style for when they encounter the witches, but I’m not sure about the characters and gameplay options.

That is Shaft (anime company) for you. Their others anime use similar art styles. I like them but sometimes I feel they use those effect a bit too much.

KyoyaHibari

Yea, I also love the dark undertones of the show as well, but then again, I still have mixed feelings considering it is magical girl and the characters are all strange, the plot is pretty good, but the characters aren’t really.

puchinri

Honestly, I’m a huge fan of magical girl shows, but I felt Madoka was poor for a magical girl show (and a supposed deconstruction of the genre), and the characters were a huge part of that (but to me, the writing just fell apart altogether).

Göran Isacson

Out of curiosity, what was it you thought didn’t work? Was it-

SPOILERS FOR MADOKA SO MANY SPOILERS DON’T LOOK IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED ALL YOU OTHER PEOPLE READING THIS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILEEEEEEEERRRRSSSSSS

-the way Sayaka went off the deep-end for not getting her man, or the way entropy was misexplained? Or the whole “all human achievements ONLY came about because girls sacrificed themselves and became witches”, which was the only thing that REALLY pissed me off.

puchinri

The entire points with Sayaka (and Hitomi) really did bug me and start making me give the show a really critical eye. But the entropy explanation was just off to me. Altogether. It relied on so much… Just… Without even trying to really elaborate on it in my mind, it just doesn’t work right at all. But that last part ESPECIALLY pisses me off. At that point, I just threw my hands in the air and said “okay, we get it, thanks, no more, bye”.

KyoyaHibari

Yea, I haven’t seen it all, but I’m debating picking it up when it comes out, I’ll see what the reviews say I guess.

puchinri

If I had to watch anything with magical girls, it’d be PreCure (if I wanted fighting) or Princess Tutu (if I wanted something especially dark). Then again, Sailor Moon takes the cake for being the most dark… And the most violent (the manga beats all), but the writing is stellar and has none of the unfortunate implications that Madoka does. But maybe the Madoka game will be fun at least.

KyoyaHibari

I heard Sailor Moon kind of gets pretty monotonous, I haven’t heard much about Princess Tutu & PreCure seems well…4Kids did it so…idk, I wouldn’t say magical girl is one of the genres I’m most interested in anyways ;P

puchinri

I don’t think the Sailor Moon manga or anime gets monotonous (and the manga is fairly short anyway), but I can see how it has such light-hearted pace at times would tire some people out. Lol, yeah, I just always pretend that 4kids never got their hands on Futari wa (fortunately, it was just the very first Futari wa, and online, it’s subbed at least). Haha, that’s understandable. It isn’t for a lot of people.

Istillduno

Urgh, even if it does get localised we’ll probably never see such a good LE for it outside of japan, not bothering importing and missing half the game due to the language barrier just for the LE goodies though.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Kyle-Smith/100000994027831 Kyle Smith

So it’s PMMMP(pimp)?

Room201

All I want is that Kyubey pouch…oh, and maybe the game too.

4shiki

I wish someone would localize this!

By the way, you should put a warning here by that Famitsu link because I think I see a number of spoilery screenshots for the anime.

Would it be taint if they had Banpresto start releasing Super Majokko Taisen games?

Think of the possibilities!?!

puchinri

That…. You have a point there. ♥A♥

I want to see these possibilities come to fruition! It’d be 1000x better than all of the PreCure DX movies and any other crossovers put together~. (If done right of course, but still!)

mikanko

I just want to ballet the eff outta all the other Mahou Shoujo baddies with Ahiru. If I could get to do that it’d be worth any extraordinary yen to dollar rate importing cost!

Since SRW games often have pretty decent variety of throwbacks it’d mean there’s a chance of getting Chacha or Ririka in there too. Durn it, why aren’t they doing this already?!? ~__~

puchinri

Hah! That’d be awesome! Honestly, I’d want to play with Cure Bloom and Egret (or any of the first three Cure duo/groups).

Ohhh gosh, to get some classic magical girl stuff in there too would be so awesome~. (Even Cutie Honey should be allowed to make an appearance than!)

http://twitter.com/bta_man BTA

I pre-ordered the regular version (with AmiAmi’s exclusive T-shirt). The LE has a lot of good stuff, but it’s too pricey for me.

puchinri

Even though I hated the show by the end of it (the middle really), I am a sucker for LEs, and this one has a lot of stuff to it.

I don’t really understand how they’re supposed to make this game work though. =u=

http://www.facebook.com/people/Marc-Veiga/1395023396 Marc Veiga

Even though all these things in the LE are amazing ( I particularly wan’t the figma) I hate dungeon crawlers. The game would have been yards better if it was a fighting game, Real-time RPG, or a game much like BRS or 3rd Birthday.

4shiki

I don’t know if you haven’t noticed yet Siliconera, but there’s already a trailer in the official site.

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